Workout recovery - better in the morning or at night?
I feel like I've been finding that doing the threshold workouts in the 'Get Faster' plan in the evening (when I typically do my workouts) may have the unanticipated consequence of increased overall muscle tightness. I'm thinking that it is because my workouts wrap up between 7:30-8:30 (depending on the day), I then eat dinner, putz around the house for a bit and go to bed around 11pm. I have no issues with sleep quality, and have always done my workouts in the evening - but only since EN has the frequency of the more stressful workouts been more of a daily thing. It's occurred to me that working out in the morning may have the benefit of still being relatively active during the day to keep muscles warm, loose and limber following a workout that stresses the muscles, and that may help negate increased muscle tightness. There are several reasons why I don't do workouts in the morning, but as I've found that I have to pay particular attention to muscle tightness to avoid injury, this is one potential reason that may override all my objections.
Just curious if anyone else found something similar.
Comments
Sometimes I like to go for a short swim in the afternoon after a morning long run. I find that really helps with getting my legs loosened up.
One of my major limiters in the summer is the heat. Do I want to run when its high 70s in the morning or 100 degrees in the afternoon. Did an Ironman Plan long run a few weeks ago in the afternoon and the recovery from that was so much harder than the following week when I did it in the morning. Like Anson, doing workouits in the afternoon allow for the extra sleep and keeps things mentally easier. This is a huge benefit for afternoon workouts. If I know I can squeeze in the workout in the afternoon there is almost no way i'm going to force myself to get up early. The other advantage to juggling between morning workouts and afternoon is the ability to create a 36 hour seperation in between key workouts vice 24.
For the OS I do a lot of my workouts in the afternoon because they are shorter and can sneek them in much easier. counter to that, My two hour run in the afternoon a few weeks ago resulted in a poor nights sleep with twitchey, sore legs.
Again, though these afternoon workouts for me are typically done by 5:30pm, giving me roughly 4-4.5 hours before I'm in bed. So I can get two light stretching routines in before i'm going to bed. I also typcially do foam rolling prior to sleep at a minimum. in the IM plan its more like two times a day. just part of my routine these days.
Ryan, Off topic question for you...how did you manage to not overheat on the run in LP wearing those pants????
I enjoy my morning workouts and seem to feel better the next day as you suggested as I stretch a bit more and try walk around.
My original post had lots more detail, but I opted to keep it more succinct. However, now that others have brought up various topics:
1) I prefer after-work workouts because I'm more energized, and I really, really dislike getting up any later than I have to. At least, during the week. Getting up early on a weekend sucks, but I often will for long bike rides and runs to avoid the heat (and traffic, in the case of a bike ride) - and knowing that after my workout I don't have to head right to work makes it mentally easier. Post workout food for a weekend workout almost always consists of a trip to Chipotle for a chicken burrito.
2) I generally consume, I'd guess, about 65-75% of my daily calories at lunch. Usually dinner (beyond a recovery drink after a workout) consists of grazing on random food objects and leftovers that are around the house. I used to have big dinners every day (in addition to the lunch calories), but that has gone by the wayside. My eating habits have improved a lot over the past couple years simply by trying to minimize consumption of processed foods.
3) One of the main reasons I bring this topic up is that in many ways, the weekend workouts have typically been more physically stressful - yet I feel like it is the weekday workouts that are contributing more to muscle tightness, so it occurred to me that timing of the workouts might be a factor. In the past, if I had a hard weekend workout coming up, I'd actually plan it so that I'd walk the dogs or mow the lawn later in the day just so I could keep the legs moving a bit.
4) Until early July or so, I had been going to Bikram Yoga once/week to maintain flexibility. I had gone 4x/week for four months last year as a whole-hog 'Let's just do this (get less inflexible) and get it done' kind of thing, and feel it helped immensely. I am thinking I may have to start going back. I bail on all the EN swim workouts anyway, so I'd just be substituting a swim workout for a yoga workout.
Nate - one of the benefits of being slow on the bike - by the time I hit the run, it wasn't all that hot
Seriously, though - I had found in training that the compression pants weren't noticably warmer than running w/o them, and I decided that the benefits they'd provide on a marathon after 112 on the bike would be worthwhile. Besides, when you don't see is the clump of ice on the top of my head being held in place by the hat
When you finish your gym session do you shoot off as soon as your last set is done? If you do, you are missing the opportunity to cool down and help aid the recovery process.
All you need is an extra 10 minutes to do some stretching and some light exercise on an exercise bike or treadmill. This will help kick-start the repair process by removing waste products that have built up in the muscles during the workout and reduce muscle soreness. So don’t rush off after you finish your workout…be cool!
http://www.dudewheresmymuscle.com/workout-recovery/
The key for you is that your doing it and you are consistant. I have done both and find AM is better for me and my life style but have to warm up a bit more, just a few minutes thats all.
I know the vast majoritiy of people get it done in the AM but I am with Matt on this one. Except I eat a full dinner before bed. Never have issues getting to sleep or sleeping thru the night and body comp is managable for me. As long as I eat for my current day's activity, I'm good. Get too indulgent and, well, we all know where that goes....
Typically I start between 7 and 8:30. Finish mostly between 9 and 10 but sometimes it is closer to 10:30. Dinner is within 30 to 45 minutes of finishing. Only need an hour after a workout to cleanup, cook, eat, and head for bed. Not for most but it works for me. I guestimate that less than 5% do the late evening thing..... everyone else is sleeping by then.
Shawn - I always done some sort of cooldown, but since the OP a couple weeks ago, I've taken to being religious about a 2 mile warm up and 2 mile easy pace cool down for all runs, even if it extends to amount of 'run' time by 5-10 minutes. I found in battling ITBS issues a couple years ago that proper warmup before intense running helps keep things from tightening up too much during the run, and recently found that the extra mile or so of cooldown seems to help as well.
David - You hit a major reason why I workout in the evening: "But the time of day can influence how you feel when exercising". Could not be more true in my case. I can't express how much more engaged, ready to go, and fueled I am in the evening as opposed to the morning. If my snooze bar could file a lawsuit, I'd be in jail for abusing the thing.
Deb - I ended up taking a good week and a half off the workouts, and went back to yoga 4-5x during that span, and it's made a tremendous difference. I've determined that one 90 minute yoga session is equal to approximately 3 days of rest in terms of muscle recovery. My body never feels more limber and balanced than it does the morning after a yoga session. This isn't the first time I've been convinced that for me, regular yoga is crucial for my recovery and ability to hit the workouts week after week. It's just that this time it has been the most pronounced in the difference it has made. I've also started being better about stretching the quads, hamstrings and calfs right after a run - the standing bow pulling pose in Bikram is fantastic for that, and has been, in a word magical.
Matt - YES! By the time I finish, have my recovery drink (usually chocolate milk w/supplemental protein), I'll snack on a few various things here and there, but for the most part my calories for the day have already been consumed. I noticed this trend when I started yoga about 2 yrs ago - I'd come home, have a recovery drink, little/no dinner and lost 30 lbs in the process. If you do workouts that late at night, and follow such a similar schedule to me and notice little/no difference in muscle tightness, then I think my problem was mostly inadequate post-workout stretching and not doing regular yoga (as I mentioned earlier, I find it phenomenal for recovery). I think maybe the times that I did workouts in the morning, usually on weekends, subsequent daily activity more or less made up for the relative lack of stretching post-workout.
Steve - Late night warriors unite!
I know many people are fans of morning workouts, and with some very good reasons, but I have to be realistic about myself and recognize that if I tried to do workouts in the mornings during the weekdays, I'd end up bailing on most of them. Not good. I'm just not a morning person - I'm more motivated to stay in bed in the morning than anything else. With no kids, and a wife who also does her workouts (aikido) in the evening after work - there is virtually no cost in my situation of doing workouts in the evening. Also, my job is such that I rarely end up having to stay late and compromise a workout (the other oft-cited reason for morning workouts).
Thanks for the feedback everyone!Ryan,
I won't get in to the early moring/eveingin debate. It seems you have it figure out with the yoga adn stretching. As I build up fatigue in the OS or an IM plan I have to be more and more dilligent on stretching, TP massage ball stuff or it catchs up with me.
Gordon
I am a morning person. Even in college (25 years ago) I would get up and run at 6 am. Afternoon means I am more likely to talk myself out of doing anything.
That said, IM plan has M/F swim and run. I can not do both in the morning once it is cold and dark, so I swim in AM and run in PM after work (which I hate). Then I have dinner and stretch, foam roll, trigger point. I always do the leg maintenance after dinner, but my DH notices the jumpier legs if I have done an afternoon run.